Rapper lands in a legal crapper

Michael W. Freeman is a veteran journalist, playwright and author. Born and raised in Fall River, Massachusetts, he has lived in Orlando since 2002. Michael has worked for some of Florida's largest newspapers, including The Orlando Sentinel. His original plays have draw strong audiences at the Orlando Fringe Festival. He is the author of the novels "Bloody Rabbit" and "Koby's New Home."

Rapper Kevin Gates has gotten in trouble with the law, accused of kicking a fan at a concert.
LAKELAND — The man who sang “Posed to be in Love” and “I Don’t Get Tired” is moving from concert stage to courtroom, now that the Lakeland Police Department has filed battery charges against him.
The charge: that video footage released on Aug. 30 shows rapper Kevin Gates kicking a women in the chest during a performance in Lakeland.
Lakeland Police completed their investigation of Gate, also known as Kevin Jerome Gilyard, 29, who lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The woman filed charges on Tuesday.
The rapper was performing at Rumors Night Club on Aug. 28. Lakeland Police say Miranda Dixon, 18, was in the crowd and standing in front of the stage.
“During Gilyard’s performance, Dixon reached onto the stage and touched Gilyard’s pants leg, then withdrew her hand,” noted Sergeant Terri Smith, public information officer for the Lakeland Police Department, in a news release about the case.
“Gilyard then turned and deliberately kicked Dixon in the stomach/chest area,” Smith added. “The kick was with such force that it pushed Dixon back into the crowd and caused her to lose consciousness for a brief period of time.”
The investigation by detectives “found that Dixon’s actions in touching the fabric of Gilyard’s pants did not rise to the level of a criminal offense,” Smith noted. “Gilyard’s action of kicking Dixon in the stomach was not as a result of self-defense and did rise to the level of a criminal offense.”
The kick, Smith added, was captured by cellphone video and the Rumors Night Club surveillance cameras, and led to a complaint affidavit charging Gates with simple battery. That complaint affidavit was forwarded this week to the State Attorney’s Office.
This was not Gates’ first brush with the law. He began making music in 2007 with fellow Louisiana natives Webbie and Lil Boosie, and released his first “Get in the Way,” in 2008, featuring Lil Boosie. Not long afterwards, Gates and Boosie were incarcerated in separate cases. Gates was released in 2011 and returned to recording music.
He also has a previous felony conviction of aggravated battery with a vehicle that happened in Chicago in 2014.

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Michael Freeman

Editor and Publisher at Freeline Productions LLCI have 22 years of experience in print journalism, having worked for a decade as a news reporter for an urban daily in Massachusetts, and then as an editor for a 38,000 circulation weekly newspaper in Central Florida. My background ranges from being a general assignment reporter to hiring writers, photographers, graphic artists and web designers. I have a solid background in all aspects of journalism, and now operate an online daily magazine. I belong to that field known as the "team players"; I work best when I can recruit and inspire excellent supporting staff to collaborate with me on projects that deliver solid results. I have have the ability to meet super-tight deadlines, a key ingredient to being successful in this field.